The Entrepreneurs Achilles Heel
Hi All,
Hope all is well in Warrior Land and you are all well rested and ready to rock it for another week of IM Madness
I've been toying with a notion/hypothesis/theory for awhile and wrote a post about it that I said I share with you here. I'd be interested to get your views on it - does this affect you? or am I waaaay wide of the mark...
So here it goes...
The Entrepreneurs Achilles Heel
We entrepreneurs are at our best when brainstorming new idea's, coming up with new products to bring to market, and generally trying to add something of value to the world.
But where do we draw the line between creation and personal success?
It appears to me that there are two paths which we can follow, each which can give us varying results.
The Holy Grail
The first being the Holy Grail of sorts. We strive to create something of immense value that's never been done before. This innovation usually takes much toil and effort and can be a very long journey from start to finish.
But is it really worth it? Should we spend such huge amounts of our time and resources on something which we may never find? Is this search for the Holy Grail justifiable or should we take a different approach to product creation.
If we are to be brutally honest with ourselves do we really believe that we can invent something new and successfully bring it to market? Just say we do master up this new creation we are left in a precarious position - how do we know that people will buy from us? Humans are creatures of habit and it could be extremely difficult for an unknown entrepreneur to successfully launch his new invention and for it to be a commercial success.
When do we say enough is enough and try taking a different path?
Innovation v Creation
This other approach is what the vast majority of entrepreneurs do, they find an area where they already have an interest in and take inspiration from the existing market. They research the most popular products there and see is there any way of them putting their own stamp on it or by improving it in some way so as to give it their own unique spin. This gives the advantage of being able to create a product, which you already know there is a demand for, but in a much faster period of time.
The goal here is not to simply copy the work of a competitor and pass it off as your own - of course that would put you in all sorts of trouble! It's to see if you can add value to an already popular marketplace and position your creation infront of a willing audience.
It is key here to be able to define your USP ( Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Point) This is what makes your product different from all others and give you an edge over your competitors.
You see when you find an area that your interested in it's very worthwhile to do some market research. I read an awesome report awhile back about a marketer who wrote Hot Reports.
These were short, snappy ebooks which were wrote about a very specific topic and priced to sell at only $7. She detailed how she only ever thought about writing a report after she had Reverse Engineered some of her biggest competitors! The thinking behind this was to make sure that there was already a hungry market for her product BEFORE she even thought about creating it.
I don't know about you but when I read that I was like "Wow - very smart lady!" She didn't waste any time trying to invent some new concept, she simply went out into the market and found out where the demand was coming from. She analyzed what the Big Players were doing and then created a similar product with her own unique twist and then gave it to the market. And Boom - she kills it everytime!!
No Need to Re-invent the Wheel
There's no need to re-invent the wheel when creating a product, especially a digital information one. People don't expect you to come up with some new amazing, never before seen, way of doing things - if you can answer their questions and give them good valuable content with your own spin on it then your on to a winner.
This is a far faster method for you to see a return on your investment. It's quite easy to research the most popular areas in your niche, search out the most popular products in this area and then add your own ideas and improve upon them.
I'm sure we all spend too much time surfing the web trying to improve our knowledge and expertise.. Well how many times have you seen products advertised as the latest and greatest Never-Before-Seen Systems in the World? And how many times has this been the case? I bet zero....
You see these sellers are basically creating the same product over and over again but they add their own personal touch and experiences to it. That is what allows them to have such a fast turn around from initial brainstorming to product launch.
They are not re-inventing the wheel - simply because the wheel works perfectly fine the way it is!
The way I see it that has been the Achilles Heel for many an Entrepreneur - they over think things and assume they have to start from scratch and invent a brand new product - one which has never been seen before.
I hope you now see that this doesn't have to be the case. You can, quite easily go out there and create your own product with confidence. Why? because you already know that there is a market for it and once you position yourself correctly there is no reason in the world why you can't be a success
So that's my take on it guys - any thought or anything you'd like to add to it?? Now I'm not saying that the above is right or wrong, just my own personal take on it... So I'll leave it there and look forward to getting your views on it....
Later - Noel.
Hope all is well in Warrior Land and you are all well rested and ready to rock it for another week of IM Madness
I've been toying with a notion/hypothesis/theory for awhile and wrote a post about it that I said I share with you here. I'd be interested to get your views on it - does this affect you? or am I waaaay wide of the mark...
So here it goes...
The Entrepreneurs Achilles Heel
We entrepreneurs are at our best when brainstorming new idea's, coming up with new products to bring to market, and generally trying to add something of value to the world.
But where do we draw the line between creation and personal success?
It appears to me that there are two paths which we can follow, each which can give us varying results.
The Holy Grail
The first being the Holy Grail of sorts. We strive to create something of immense value that's never been done before. This innovation usually takes much toil and effort and can be a very long journey from start to finish.
But is it really worth it? Should we spend such huge amounts of our time and resources on something which we may never find? Is this search for the Holy Grail justifiable or should we take a different approach to product creation.
If we are to be brutally honest with ourselves do we really believe that we can invent something new and successfully bring it to market? Just say we do master up this new creation we are left in a precarious position - how do we know that people will buy from us? Humans are creatures of habit and it could be extremely difficult for an unknown entrepreneur to successfully launch his new invention and for it to be a commercial success.
When do we say enough is enough and try taking a different path?
Innovation v Creation
This other approach is what the vast majority of entrepreneurs do, they find an area where they already have an interest in and take inspiration from the existing market. They research the most popular products there and see is there any way of them putting their own stamp on it or by improving it in some way so as to give it their own unique spin. This gives the advantage of being able to create a product, which you already know there is a demand for, but in a much faster period of time.
The goal here is not to simply copy the work of a competitor and pass it off as your own - of course that would put you in all sorts of trouble! It's to see if you can add value to an already popular marketplace and position your creation infront of a willing audience.
It is key here to be able to define your USP ( Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Point) This is what makes your product different from all others and give you an edge over your competitors.
You see when you find an area that your interested in it's very worthwhile to do some market research. I read an awesome report awhile back about a marketer who wrote Hot Reports.
These were short, snappy ebooks which were wrote about a very specific topic and priced to sell at only $7. She detailed how she only ever thought about writing a report after she had Reverse Engineered some of her biggest competitors! The thinking behind this was to make sure that there was already a hungry market for her product BEFORE she even thought about creating it.
I don't know about you but when I read that I was like "Wow - very smart lady!" She didn't waste any time trying to invent some new concept, she simply went out into the market and found out where the demand was coming from. She analyzed what the Big Players were doing and then created a similar product with her own unique twist and then gave it to the market. And Boom - she kills it everytime!!
No Need to Re-invent the Wheel
There's no need to re-invent the wheel when creating a product, especially a digital information one. People don't expect you to come up with some new amazing, never before seen, way of doing things - if you can answer their questions and give them good valuable content with your own spin on it then your on to a winner.
This is a far faster method for you to see a return on your investment. It's quite easy to research the most popular areas in your niche, search out the most popular products in this area and then add your own ideas and improve upon them.
I'm sure we all spend too much time surfing the web trying to improve our knowledge and expertise.. Well how many times have you seen products advertised as the latest and greatest Never-Before-Seen Systems in the World? And how many times has this been the case? I bet zero....
You see these sellers are basically creating the same product over and over again but they add their own personal touch and experiences to it. That is what allows them to have such a fast turn around from initial brainstorming to product launch.
They are not re-inventing the wheel - simply because the wheel works perfectly fine the way it is!
The way I see it that has been the Achilles Heel for many an Entrepreneur - they over think things and assume they have to start from scratch and invent a brand new product - one which has never been seen before.
I hope you now see that this doesn't have to be the case. You can, quite easily go out there and create your own product with confidence. Why? because you already know that there is a market for it and once you position yourself correctly there is no reason in the world why you can't be a success
So that's my take on it guys - any thought or anything you'd like to add to it?? Now I'm not saying that the above is right or wrong, just my own personal take on it... So I'll leave it there and look forward to getting your views on it....
Later - Noel.